Tabula Rasa
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Personal Essay
Allie Park
On a rainy day look out the window. We’ve all done it once—sit near the
window ledge and peer up at the sky. Stare at how the clouds brood across the
many shades of grey, each a separate bastion lost in its own pensiveness. Watch the
rain streak down apartment buildings, rusty shacks, towering malls and see how it
pierces the air like needles at night. But as you follow each falling streak, don’t forget
to notice the raindrops that cling to your window. Feel your eyes close in together as
they focus on the drops that line the edges of the window work. These are the drops
that are destined to dissolve into the wooden frames and glass when time comes.
But it’s just a mistake that they’ve landed on glass.
Mistakes are what I call—‘unintentional acts’. They start and end as blunders
and don’t develop into bigger consequences. My homeroom teacher from a few
years ago used to disregard the cliché, “Build on your mistakes”. She would snort
and retort, “Why make mistakes when you can do it perfectly the first time?” Both
sayings seemed logical to me at that time so I simply accepted what I heard. Looking
back, though, I now know that the biggest mistake was to become a clean slate—
tabula rasa.
By Tabula rasa, I am referring to people who lack a history of mistakes. These
people possess the same blank mind as newborn babies. Living a life that is empty
of mistakes in an attempt to be perfect is not living life to the fullest—it is merely
drawing a pattern around the outskirts of life.
My first year in high school was supposed to be the unfolding of a new
segment in life. But events took on an ironic twist and I found myself being marred
through perfection. My attempts to be perfect dominated everything that I did—
from academic performance to sports. So, I established a routine for myself. Time
became the most important thing in my life. I would run the same number of laps
around the school field everyday; would sleep the same number hours; would
listen to the same music. Perfection—the ugly mistake—had molded me into what
I previously was. What people marveled and labeled as passion, was in fact my
desperate attempts to cling onto what I thought was right.
Perfection can only be undone through mistakes and trial. To be perfect
is to be blank like a child—a foolish desire. Life is meant to be shaken, tattered,
and bantered with. Grab a pen and start writing on your slate. It was meant to be
scrambled on.
Captain On the
Bridge : Star Trek
Into Darkness
Flim Review
최찬
“Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship
Enterprise. Her five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to
seek out new lifeforms and new civilizations; to boldly go where no
one has gone before.”
J.J Abrams, one of the most successful producers of this age, has often
been criticized for trying to film the Star Trek movie series based on
the show from ‘60s. I thought he was a bit too ambitious he signed
directing it in the first place, but now Abrams is not holding back as
he goes bold on the sequel to the 2009 reboot.
Star Trek Into Darkness does not feel like a typical “Star Trek film”;
it does not rely on the gradual build up of suspense but rather on
the quickness of a summer blockbuster. A fan of the fast-paced
production, Abrams has a knack for using many devices to play
with our emotion, though he really does go too far sometimes. For
instance, he employs the “10 seconds left” scenarios to generate the
necessary thrill without making us realize it as we sit tight through the
ride holding onto our seats.
The Enterprise crew of 2009 is back and their return to the big screen
is very welcomed. With the newest addition to the cast like Alice Eve,
this film intends only for greatness. From the look of things, Abrams
wan ts this film to be viewed as the Dark Knight (2008) of the series.
While Abrams does not succeed in reaching the height that Nolan
achieved, this is a satisfying summer flick that is worth multiple
viewings.